More 3D Print Painting

October 23, 2017

After my last post about 3D print painting I had more or less run out of things to paint aside from another moon city (which I am still working on).

Then the designer who modeled the prints I had featured (Jukka Seppänen – Kijai) contacted me about the blog post, and we got talking… Then basically as a result a LOT more models happened in a very short time!

So before I get way behind in writing about my progress I decided to do another post.

Below I have featured another 5 models that I painted over the past few weeks along with a bit about each and where the STL’s can be downloaded. I’ve got another five on the go as well (anticipating even more), so there will be an additional follow up to this post at some point in the future. :)

I don’t have a pile of progress pictures of any of these models as there was a lot of stuff between me and my camera, and to be honest, I was far more interested in painting than I was in taking photos.

I’ll start with “Abode Of The Hand” As I’ve probably got the most to say about it from a painting perspective.

The model itself was inspired by a painting I made many years ago. I thought that it would translate well into 3D and so suggested it to Kijai, who really ran with the idea and made it his own. I was extremely happy to get a chance to print one (husband does the printing actually) and paint it.

I especially love the asymmetry of the castle and the tunnel that goes through the hand to connect the stairs. :D

First I primed the plastic, and once that was dry I decided to treat the carved hand, rough stone and the castle as three separate, but coordinated things, different enough in the way they were painted to not blend all together. Coming up with how to make these distinctions was a bit challenging as my color palate was monochromatic.

The hand was done in a flat grey. then I dry brushed on some iridescent medium to give it the slightest sparkle. when that was dried many layers of light grey and white were dry-brushed on to highlight the stone facets.

The look of the rough stone was achieved by gloping blobs of white paint onto the surface and mixing black into the white, directly on the surface to create all the different shades. Glopping isn’t exactly a technical term… it’s basically what I call loading up a paintbrush with far too much paint and smooshing the bristles down onto a surface, then lifting them off creating textured peaks (glopping!). When it dries the peaks aren’t very large, but the texture they create is great for creating a realistic stone effect.

I tend to almost always involve some metallics in my models. I like the way they catch the light and make the whole thing more interesting to look at. For this model (in my mind) the castle part is sort of like the sparkling, magical crown jewel and the home of a somewhat reclusive wizard, so at the risk of making the whole thing look garish I made it all shine, and I ended up happy with the result. I didn’t use any particular technique on this portion as I thought that the metallic paints sort of held their own.

The finishing touches of the static grass, clump foliage and lichen (applied with thick PVA) really helped break up my monochromatic paint job and brought the whole thing to life. I get all of my model finishing supplies from Serious Play.

Click any of the images below to view the full size photos of all sides of the model.

Next I’ll move onto this little highland cow. The model was based on another one of my older projects from when I was first experimenting with polymer clay. I was impressed by how well he printed with all of the individual hairy bits and the way the horns and ears are, but that’s all down to how his model was designed.

I tried to give him a semi-realistic paint job and this was achieved with a base of dark brown and multiple layers of highlights. Then after the highlights were finished and completely dry, I went back over everything with a dark brown wash.

The horns were based in white paint and then I applied washes of black and brown to them, blotting each layer with my fingers until I got the irregular dirty look that I wanted.

Click any image below to see the full size photos

Next I will cover Tortoise Henge! This one came about as a result of a random idea I sketched out and fired off to Kijai. He then worked his magic, put his own spin on it and released it as another free download.

We have two 3D printers, one is just about perfectly calibrated, and the other is still a little choppy. My husband was working on getting our second printer a bit more fine tuned, so he printed me two of these to start… and I really liked how both came out! The smooth one represents the model exactly as it was intended, and the second “rougher” one ended up with a lot of additional personality (I think) from the texture that the wobbly printer gave it.

Happy accidents :)

Since I had two to play with, I decided to approach their paint jobs differently demonstrating the versatility of the model. The tortoise in the photo above was done with the better (smoother) printer. After priming, I made his body a mixture of purple and brown with light highlights and the shell is green with a brown wash all over, then more concentrated in the crevices of the shell. The standing stones are grey with dry brushed highlights and a black wash.

I finished off the shell with sand, static grass, flowered clump foliage and brown lichen. I wasn’t sure how this would all look when I was finished, but I am really happy with it in the end. He’s got a lot going on. :)

Next is the rougher tortoise who I just wanted to paint in a semi-realistic way. His body is green with brown dry brushed on, then highlights on top… and the shell is brown with light highlights on the middle of each bump and a brown wash went over the whole thing, again concentrating in the crevices of the shell. The standing stones are the same as the first model, but after they were dry I dry brushed in some green for algae/moss.

Then my husband presented me with a surprise mini tortoise (about half the size of the other two) as he was still fiddling with the second printer. The settings he had it on this time chewed up the model a fair bit, so I decided to just take advantage of all those extra facets and made him shiny with metallic paints :) He also makes a cool business card holder which I discovered sort of by accident.

Click below to view more full sized photos of the tortoises.

Now onto the last two models I painted! I had absolutely nothing to do with the design input on these.

The Twisted Tower was printed in two parts which lock together for a perfect fit. When I first saw it I had an idea to make some tiny little eyeball lichen clusters, like the ones that are stuck to the walls in the film The Labyrinth. If you don’t know what they are off the top of your head, you clearly need to watch the film again :)

Anyhoo… That was just the first thing that popped into my head, but when it came down to making the clusters and I had the printed model in my hand, I wasn’t convinced that I could make it work, so I decided to try painting it without any embellishments. And it’s not like it needs embellishments… well none of them need embellishments, I just enjoy embellishing things.

After priming, the tower was painted dark grey, with light grey dry brushed on to highlight the stones. I then decided to try some light purple and I really liked the way that looked. After it was all dry I felt that it was still missing something, so I put in some random purple metallic highlights as well so that parts of it shine a bit… almost like snail trails.

I then focused on the base, which has a LOT of facets and beautiful twisty bits for your eyes to follow. I wanted to bring out all of the details with the paint so there are a great number of highlighting layers in brown, and lighter grey worked in there on top of the dark grey base which was the same base color that I started with for the tower.

After it was all assembled I felt that it could use a last finishing touch, and if I wasn’t going to apply any model foliage, then I would at least apply a bit of green to give it some feeling of life. You can’t really see the painting details very well in the photos to be honest, it looks a lot better in person. :)

Click the thumbnails before for full size photos of the other angles of the model.

The last model I am going to write about is this adorable little Fairy Hut.

It prints in two parts and the inside is hollow so if you print it large enough an LED tealight can be inserted.

Our printer chewed up the chimney a bit, a fault of the printer, not the file, but my husband just printed a new one and it glued on seamlessly… that is, until I carelessly popped it off again. Then I mega super-glued it back on and there is a little lump, but I think that it still looks good… and probably no one would have even noticed if I hadn’t gone on a paragraph pointing out the flaw.

There are a lot of fine details on this model, and that made it a dream to paint.

After priming.. I painted the house brown with light dry brushed highlights and I painted the roof green with gold dry brushed highlights. (very unusual for me to use gold, but I like it!) I did the door in green as well to match the roof and then the chimney and all of the window frames are gold with a brown wash on top to weather them in. There are a lot of layers here as I kept going back to it, adding in finishing touches of paint until I felt it was finished.

After everything was dry I applied static grass, clump foliage bushes and green and brown lichen.

I really like the way this one looks on it’s own, but also when it’s lit up :)

Click the thumbnails below for full sized, additional photos.

Those are all of the updates I’ve got for this time, and if you’ve actually read this all to the end, you’re a champ ;)

I don’t know how long it will take for me to complete the next 5 models, but I can say that I’ve already got four of them printed and half painted!

It’s been a lot of fun having the opportunity to collaborate with another artist on some things (making a friend in the process) and being able to turn my enthusiasm for miniatures onto a whole new medium with 3D printing.